The Experience Economy  

The Experience Economy is a new stage of economic offering. Experiences are a distinct offering from services. Experiences must provide a memorable offering that will remain with one for a long time, but in order to achieve this, the consumer must be drawn into the offering such that they feel a sensation. And to feel the sensation, the guest must actively participate. This requires highly skilled actors who can dynamically personalise  each event according to the needs, the response and the behavioural traits of the guests….

 Beyond Entertainment

At first sight it appears that experiences have an affinity with the entertainment and leisure industries. Walt Disney's Theme Parks, a visit to a West End Theatre, an out-door adventure play ground, or a theme restaurant like Benihana. There is no doubt that the entertainment industry has acquired the skills and talents for engaging people, but now other industries have realised that many such facets can transform a vanilla "me too" service into a memorable event that the customer will want to repeat again and will want to recount to all their friends.

The Four Realms of an Experience

Delivery

When designing and delivering experience you should aim to:

• theme the experience
• harmonise impressions with positive cues
• eliminate negative cues
• mix in memorabilia
• engage all five senses

The sweet spot for any compelling experience—incorporating entertainment, educational, escapist, and esthetic elements into otherwise generic space—is similarly a mnemonic place, a tool aiding in the creation of memories, distinct from the normally uneventful world of goods and services. Its very design invites you to enter, and to return again and again. Its space is layered with amenities—props—that correspond with the way the space is used, and it is rid of any features that do not follow this function. Engaging experiences bring these four realms together in compelling ways.

We've already mentioned edutainment as one combination of realms aimed at achieving a certain experiential aim: Education + Entertainment.

Consider, too, the five other dimensions of an engaging experience that emerge from combining realms:

Eduscapist       =  Education + Escapist (changing context)

Edustethic        =  Education + Esthetic (fostering appreciation)

Escasthetic      = Escapist + Esthetic (altering state)

Entersthetic     = Entertainment + Esthetic (having presence)

Escatainment  = Escapist + Entertainment (creating catharsis)

The terms vary in how trippingly they fall from the tongue (although edutainment flows smoothly, primarily through familiarity and repetition), but each maps out rich territory for understanding how to set the stage for compelling experiences.³² Holding attention, changing context, fostering appreciation, altering states, having presence, and creating catharsis—these lie at the heart of orchestrating compelling theatrical performances. When every business is a stage, these states need to be mastered.

Beyond Experiences - Transformations

Experiences aren't the ultimate form of economic offering. Pine and Gilmore have identified a fifth stage:Transformations. Whilst experiences do provide sensations and a memorable event these do wear off with time. Transformations on the other hand make a permanent beneficial change to the customer. A sick person become well in body and mind, a dying company is turned-around, and a customer habitually spending beyond his or her means achieves financial viability and stability. Whilst experiences are memorable and are sustained for a time, transformations are inspirational and must be sustained through time.

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